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An official announcement of the deal could come this week, according to a report from Endpoints News. The Trump administration has spent much of this year working to coerce drugmakers into lowering their prices in the U.S. While those efforts have already yielded agreements with a trio of drugmakers, the companies responsible for the industry's superstar obesity medicines may be next to visit the White House.Reports Tuesday indicate that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are engaged in talks with the U.S. government to offer certain obesity drug doses at prices as low as $149 per month in exchange for coverage commitments from federal payers. Endpoints News first reported on the deal talks Tuesday morning. The Wall Street Journal published an article of its own in the afternoon.The companies and federal officials are engaged in talks and the deals could come together this week, according to the reports. Both publications cited sources familiar with the discussions.Under the potential agreements, the companies' obesity drugs could carry prices as low as $149 per month for the lowest doses—far lower than current U.S. list prices—in exchange for an expansion of coverage from federal payers, according to the reports.Further, according to WSJ, Eli Lilly is pushing for a voucher to speed up the FDA's review of its GLP-1 pill orforglipron as part of the talks. The publication cited a 1- to 2-month review timeline being sought by the company, a timeline that would not be realistic outside of the FDA's recently unveiled National Priority Review voucher program.The news follows several "most favored nation" drug pricing deals that drugmakers struck with the Trump administration over the past 35 days to earn exemptions on tariffs. Pfizer kicked things off with its CEO, Albert Bourla, visiting the White House in late September to announce the very first pricing deal between a pharma giant and the administration.Two weeks later, on the heels of a major investment announcement in Virginia, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot paid a visit to the nation's capital to formalize his company's accord. And days later, Merck KGaA's EMD Serono struck a pricing deal focused on its in vitro fertilization (IVF) drug portfolio.At the EMD Serono event in mid-October, President Donald Trump offered clues that an obesity deal was in the works. At the time, the president said "fat loss" drugs would become available for about $150 per month in the U.S. Quickly, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz stepped in to stress that the talks remained underway.

Johnson & Johnson and Protagonist Therapeutics have been working together on immunology assets since 2017. \n Johnson & Johnson may be looking to deepen its relationship with immunology partner Protagonist Therapeutics with a takeover deal, The Wall Street Journal reports.The exact details of the talks aren’t yet known, but a deal would likely value Protagonist well above its market value of over $4 billion as of Thursday’s close, the report notes. Protagonist’s shares flew up more than 30% to around $88 per share as of Friday afternoon.J&J and Protagonist’s 2017 collaboration sparked icotrokinra, a much-anticipated targeted oral peptide designed to selectively block the interleukin-23 (IL-23) receptor. The drug candidate is up for both FDA and European review in plaque psoriasis and is also being studied in psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis. Last month, icotrokinra proved that it may have what it takes to hold its own in the crowded immunology market with a win over Bristol Myers Squibb’s oral psoriasis champion Sotyktu. Analysts have propped the med up as a potential blockbuster across its various indications, with Jefferies analysts estimating peak sales of $7.5 billion in the U.S. alone.J&J has exclusive commercialization rights to the med according to the partners’ agreement, which was expanded in 2021.Last year, Protagonist added another character to its story with Takeda’s $300 million bet on its blood disorder med rusfertide.The drug candidate, which J&J would also get its hands on through a potential acquisition of Protagonist, succeeded in reducing blood procedures in patients with polycythemia vera during a phase 3 trial. J&J has a broad hematology profile across several blood cancers, but does not have as much to offer in the way of rare blood disorders that rusfertide targets. Taking on both of Protagonist’s clinical pipeline assets would expand its horizons and add some extra padding to its immunology business as top-selling Stelara faces the impacts of recent generic competition.A Protagonist deal would follow the M&A theme that J&J opened the year with. For a whopping $14.6 billion, the Big Pharma firm bought out Intra-Cellular and its schizophrenia and bipolar treatment Caplyta.

Bengaluru: Kenvue's interim CEO Kirk Perry met Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to try and dissuade him from listing Tylenol as a potential cause of autism in an upcoming report, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Perry argued at the hastily scheduled meeting this week that there was no clear link between the two, the report said. WSJ reported on September 5 that the U.S. health secretary planned to announce that the use of Tylenol, a popular over-the-counter pain medication, in pregnant women was potentially linked to autism - contrary to medical guidelines that say it is safe to use. Kenvue shares fell more than 9% to $18.62 after the report last week, but have since recovered slightly. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As we would with any regulator who reaches out to us, we engaged in a scientific exchange with the secretary and members of his staff as it relates to the safety of our products, Kenvue said in an emailed response. The company said it continues to believe that taking acetaminophen - the active ingredient in Tylenol - does not cause autism and that global health regulators, independent public health organizations and medical professionals agreed. Kenvue executives have also argued that there are few safe alternatives to acetaminophen to reduce fevers in pregnant women, according to the WSJ report. According to researchers, there is no firm evidence of a link between the use of the drug and autism. Recent studies have yielded conflicting conclusions on whether its use during pregnancy might create risks for the developing fetus. Wall Street analysts view Kenvue as an acquisition target after it came under pressure from investors, who have criticized its lackluster performance. (Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)